In Real Time
by JohnKatlove
Summary: Dave is killing for more time to live and John comes to town wanting just a break from life in high time. After seeing his brother die, Dave is ready to kill in cold blood, but with time on his hands, he has a better idea. He'll show Greenwhich who's boss
1. Chapter 1

Time.

Time was important to us all, it ran our lives, consumed it. Though we don't really think about it, most of the time we wanted it to pass. On the contrary, in a place like this, time was your everything. It wasn't just important, it was absolutely vital. There was a thing called watches, numbers displayed on your arm in bright green. Your aging stopped at twenty five, and then that watch was counting down, one year to live and one year to find yourself another way to gain more time.

That's what I had to do.

My time started when I was sitting at the docks, tossing pebbles into the water with my bro beside me. We had moments like this, just relaxing by the water. Despite how disgusting and polluted it had become in our "time zone", it was better than nothing, I could always think better by the water.

The starting of my clock hit me like a freight train. It's different for all people, some merely are stirred from naps, others feel like they're having heart attacks. I had prepared to throw a rock, pulling back my arm at just the right angle. Right as I was about to release it, a spasm rocked my body, shot through me, locked up all my muscles. I was dead weight, falling. Bro caught me before I could hit the ground and he held me as I stared at the numbers on my arm. One year was set up, ticking down those numbers looking hauntingly small despite the year on it.

I don't think any other time in my life I had been that scared. Sure, you had a "year" left, but that was just an illusion. In reality, you had a few months. There were bills to be paid, and you had to get food, drinks. You didn't just live for that year, it could be a couple months, weeks. Well that was, if you don't know how to work the system.

When I was old enough to understand what the watches meant my bro had trained me to be what many would consider a "time lord". I could steal other people's time from them, drain their life force. Of course, before my clock started there was no reason, I didn't even need to bother with time back then, but the training got me well prepared none the less.

It was twenty five years later now. When one looks at our society in the past you would think no one had aged past the age of their mid twenties, or that it was simply a land that was stuck in time. In a way they would be right, I was now fifty years old, looking no different than I had back when my watch started ticking. Today was a big day, but my bro hadn't even lived long enough to celebrate with me. I had been walking to work, checking my watch every so often in nervous anticipation, two hours were slowly coming to their end. I needed to work quickly, that or find some poor soul to sap time off of.

Luckily I had gotten there just in time, clocking in and heading for the work rooms a bit quicker than why was probably necessary. In my rush I could see the shadow of someone not too far away down the path. They were just sitting there and it had peaked my curiosity. Sure, it was normal to see people dead, but it was strange to see it happen so close to the work place. Usually those bodies were collected by now.

I continued walking, this time down the path and rounded the corner to see someone very, very familiar. He had those usual shades on his face, his hair spiked oh so perfectly. It was just like him, and I couldn't stop the panic that rushed through me. I saw people die every day, hell I killed them myself. This didn't look like it had just been a kill from loss of time though. Bro never lost a fight with that, his technique was flawless.

Kneeling beside his body I pulled him forward looking over him to see if there were any wounds. Sure enough I had seen a trail of blood and my eyes moved up to see something lodged into his side. Slowly I began to raise his arm up and sure enough, stuck right into his side was a crudely made dagger. Murder. This wasn't just someone stealing his time. No, that would have been too easy. They actually murdered in cold blood, bro had a good four years back on his watch, they probably didn't even take that from him.

Turning his arm over to see the numbers I nodded to myself. I was right, they hadn't even bothered to take his time. Such a clean murder. In a place like this, people could see it and care less. Standing, I picked him up the best I could and hoisted him over my shoulder. I didn't care how heavy he was compared to me, I was trained to haul away bodies like this. Somehow this felt different.

Somehow, carrying him brought its own heaviness to my heart.

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><p>After burying him I took my time to head home, time I didn't have, to scope out anyone who looked like they might have the time that I needed to pass another day. I chose a man dressed in a decent enough suit. Lucky for me, he had another four hours on him. It didn't seem like too long, but for me it was more than enough to make it to the bar for a drink or too and sap some drunk of the rest of his time.<p>

Hell at this rate, I could be a time keeper. Not that I wanted to be one.

Now mind you, the people of Dayton dropped like flies daily, and there weren't many in the bar at times, everyone was too poor to worry about drinking. A few drinks could be the death of them, sapping their time as payment.

That's why it came as a shock to me that day, when I entered the bar and there was a swarm of people. A man was buying drinks for everyone, his face just one big smile as he did so. The man was... Strange to say the least. He looked like someone who would have come from the high class timezone of Greenwhich, and from what I was hearing, he definitely had the time to meet the bill even more so. Close to one million years, this guy was a gold mine of life, and according to the people talking he had only just started the time on his clock.

So how the hell had he gained so much time so fast?

Walking over to the bar I sat down a ways away, scoping him out and keeping my eyes hidden behind my shades, not bothering to take them off for even a second. His hair was dark and his skin was slightly tanned, like he got out every so often. The kid had goober teeth, sticking from his top lip just a bit to press against his bottom when he smiled and laughed. He looked way too innocent for a place like this, innocence meant danger, and the danger was me. How could I give up an opportunity like this, he was sitting right there, flashing his time without a care in the world around people who have never seen so much time in their lives. It was only a matter of time before someone stole that time from him, but it had to be the right person, someone who would use the time right. It would have to be me.

* * *

><p>Everyone began to calm down after a while, stumbling off their own ways when they knew they would need to sleep. People here actually had to worry about their time, unlike that guy. I still had my eye on him, having had a few drinks I was maybe just a little bit tipsy, my eyesight blurring every so often. I was still steady on my feet though as I stalked after him when he got up to leave. He had this happy pep in his step and I just wanted to make it stop. Hell maybe I didn't want his time, I just had this overwhelming edge to gut the guy. It was people like him that made people kill like this, people like this that fueled the hatred in the ghettos and the constant deaths.<p>

We were walking down an alley, back to where his car had been parked and I started running towards him. Strider's were known for their silence, and now was a great moment to have it. I ran to a large waste bin, jumping onto it and climbing up onto the roof before running over and diving off, landing hard on the hood of his car right on my feet, granted I nearly toppled over from the impact I kept my cool.

He looked shocked, scared, and I was glad. This was the greatest feeling, the feel of looking down at your prey, and they just knew what was coming to them, they knew that they had no chance and that they were going to die. The mistake that this kid made, was running.

With a pivot in his step he took off in the other direction down the alley way, and I was on his tail in no time, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him down to the ground, slamming him hard on his back and pressing my knee down hard into his stomach as I pinned him down.

"Please." Was all he said, and I couldn't tell for what reason. His eyes said that he would rather be dead, but beneath me his body was rigid, fear. The kid didn't want to die. That was too bad for him. Grasping his forearm I flipped it so that mine was over top of his own, his other arm laid limp by his side and I almost felt... Guilty. Everyone else put up a fight, but this kid just kept his eyes on the watch, swallowing hard and looking brave but at the same time at a loss.

Pity.

That's what I felt when I ripped my arm away, leaving him with only a week left. I spat on the ground beside him, making him wince and I rose, reaching up and tugging off my shades to look down at him, heel of my foot digging into his stomach. "It's scum like you that drove me to steal time. Scum like you that got my brother killed, and you're going to suffer."

Reaching down I hoisted the slightly smaller male over my shoulder. Now he was trashing, screaming, but I knew no one would come to help him. In the ghetto's of Dayton this was a normal occurrence, and no one fucked with the knight of time.


	2. Chapter 2

I'm constantly going to be going back and editing pages so if there's anything notable please tell me, thank you. (:

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><p>Bro had taught me something very important way back before he died, this little piece of advice would ensure my life would go on in a place like this: Never reveal your time, not matter what. If you had something as small as one minutes, it would be stolen, one measly minute to drag on that persons pathetic life in poverty. Hell that was how I had been, if I needed that extra minute to get someone, it was mine no exception. Corporate greed was the pressure that was held over our heads, made it a struggle to live. It was so easy for them, not having to constantly check the clock or run to where they needed to be.<p>

He was right, my bro I mean, things needed to change.

* * *

><p>"Kid you've got to stop taking so much time", his voice rang in my ears as I washed up some old clothes of mine, keeping an eye on me... What was he even? Not a companion, no, not even close to a companion in the least. Never a friend or an ally. This guy was the enemy, doubling as my hostage, not matter how innocent he looked and despite the fact that he had been a bit generous with his time. The overall fact was that he had been flaunting it, throwing it in out faces. Either he had a death wish, or he was more what one would consider "stupid".<p>

When I finished the clothes I took my time to hang them over the edge of the counter, flattening out wrinkles in the fabric and small creases. I was paying special attention to frayed edges, playing with the strings between my fingers. Each hole or rip had is own little story and I could remember it all, whether it was just having a fight with my brother or some thug attacking me for time.

"Uh, hey sir? Excuse me." A small voice spoke up, any reminiscing lost to the wind as I looked back at the dark haired male. He flinched when my eyes landed on him despite the fact that he couldn't see them. This kid was pathetic, and he was too busy staring at me with those wide blue eyes of his to actually continue. I sighed, shaking my head and turning back to the clothes, squeezing the water from them as best as I could in a steeled grip, "are you going to talk or are you just going to keep staring at me like an idiot?"

When I peeked back at him it seemed he was taken aback, embarrassed in a way. "Oh yeah, right", he cleared his throat and pulled at the collar of his shirt, "I wanted to know why you wear those glasses all the time, I mean if you wanted to be intimidating you would show your eyes or something, they're kinda creepy at night. Besides those glasses are pointy and large. Honestly you kind of look like a huge doofus." It was not that I was actually looking at the kid, my eyebrows raised so high their new home might as well be considered my hair line. Sine when did he decide it was okay to address the one who kidnapped you like that?

"Yeah well you're a bigger doofus, my glasses are cool, you just have stupid square ones, beaver teeth." After that the kid actually smiled, no not just smiled, he gave a huge toothy grin. Then he laughed out loud, his eyes crinkling at the corner in amusement. As endearing as it was, I realized again who this person was, he was the enemy, I shouldn't be laughing with the enemy or even joking with them.

"You know, you're awful defensive aren't you? You're just a big dorky softy and y-" I reacted before I could really think, flashing forward in the blink of an eye and catching his throat in a tight grip, both hands wrapped tight. His own hands were clawing at mine, not in a panic thought, he was calm and composed keeping a straight face despite how hard I was squeezing. "Please let go." That was all he could manage to choke out in his loss of breath and from just that, the weirdest thing happened. I let go. It was slow but I did it still, and he smiled gently in understanding.

"I'm not the enemy here, you realize? Why do you think I came here? I hate it up in Greenwhich it's not like I chose to have this much time. I just started my clock. I didn't know what to do so I came here, they were just giving me all this time and all I could think of is how to get rid of it because I didn't want this, living forever must be so cruel... I actually want to die, you know? We're only supposed to live until twenty five anyway..." It was hard to find an appropriate way to respond to something like that, he seemed to be very honest and it was true, what was he supposed to do with a million years? I could think of tons of things that I could do, but then again I had aged far beyond him off of sheer brutality. Shaking my head I plopped down in front of him, letting out a huff that blew my bangs up.

I figured that now was a better time than ever for an introduction.

* * *

><p>"So you don't actually know who killed your brother?"<p>

We had been talking for a while, and that had been the main subject, my brother. Of course I was still having problems talking about it to people, especially someone I just met but for some reason this kid was just so easy to talk to. I learned that he had a pretty good heart, gave time to ones who were at their last second and was always ready to just give it away because he felt that he didn't deserve it. Honestly, I thought he deserved all the time he could get, but as he said one million years was just too much for anyone. By the end of the conversation we decided to split the time I stole from him half and half, we could share it. The both of us would deal with the burden together.

Though that wasn't the subject anymore, it was my bro.

"Well, a lot of people had it out for him. See, my bro and I were... Well I guess we were thieves. I knew that it wasn't good what I was doing, killing innocent people to stay alive but what else could I do? I could see why people would want to kill him though, hell I bet they want to kill me too, they just haven't caught me yet. I'm pretty good with how I get around." Shrugging I turned to him, seeing that he was done changing into the clothes I had given him. They were just a bit big on him, the jeans hanging off his narrow waist and the shirt sliding down his shoulder slightly. I was a little more built than him, so it made sense.

Besides, I was going to run errands and I couldn't leave my hostage alone, he could escape. I also couldn't let him run around in fancy clothes because then people would know about his time. That was something we didn't need to show people. He sighed, smoothing down some of the wrinkles on the old clothes before looking up at me, "I see. So basically while with you I'm in danger at all times, not like I wasn't before hand but I mean still?"

With a smirk I chuckled and shrugged, "that depends, how good are you at running? That doesn't matter right now though, we need some sleep, now that I have all this time I can probably sleep in right?" The other nodded, giving a gentle smile and that's when I realized I had never gotten a name from him. At first it hadn't really mattered but I guessed we were on a first name basis, considering I had actually told the little shit things about myself.

"By the way, the name's Dave."

The grin on his face widened.

"Name's John."


End file.
